Trembling, Kai’s eyes scan his computer monitor for half a minute, as if it’ll give some clue where Dyo has gone. “Come on, come on, come on,” he chants under his breath. “Get back online, get back, God please.” He starts to click desperately through the other layers of the building plans in the program until they vanish as well, with a yellow TRANSMISSION TERMINATED message overlaying on the screen.

Dyo’s router is now offline.

“!” Kai throws his mouse against the back of his cubicle wall. What now? What is he supposed to do now??

Hands clenched in his hair, Kai slows his labored breathing down and tries to re-center. He can’t lose control. Dyo's counting on him. He swallows back the panic and focuses. Right. The post-mission routine. Even though there’s nothing remotely ing routine about this. He gathers the mission materials and slips them back into the manila envelope from whence they came. Only this time, their destination won't be the incinerator.

He doesn’t dare leave his work station, on some miracle that Dyo manages to get back online, but he can’t stay here. Every second he stands here waffling is another second wasted. “BAEKHYUN!” he all but screams. “BAEK, get your over here!”

His screeching echoes down the empty hall, and a startled Baekhyun comes around the corner seconds later, face filled with appropriate concern. Kai practically throws his headset at him. “Dyo was mid-conflict with an unknown number of enemies when we got disconnected. No heat readings to tell where they were coming from. Put this on and watch in case he comes back.” He’s shaking, everything feels surreal. This can’t be happening. “I gotta go, I gotta--”

“Go. Kris. Seventh floor.” Baekhyun helps him zero in, speaking in a controlled tone as he puts the headset on and immediately parks himself in front of Kai’s screen.

Kris. He’s got to get this to Kris, now. Dyo’s life is hanging in the balance.

"I trust you, tiger."

With this in mind, Kai sprints to the stairwell. Forget the elevator, there’s no time for that. He runs up three floors, taking the steps two at a time, and bursts through the door into the spacious reception area for the top executive offices. The administrative assistant stationed there startles at his disheveled approach.

“Can I help you?”

“I need to see Kris. Now. Failed mission,” he pants out.

“He’s on the phone with an important matter. You can leave the file with me, and I’ll make sure—“

“No, I need to see him now. This is urgent!” Kai doesn’t wait for further permission, marching past the receptionist’s desk and straight into the his boss's office, slamming the door behind him and flipping the lock to keep her out.

The large leather executive chair swivels around to showcase Kris, glaring at the intruder. "Now's not a good time," he whispers at Kai, pointing to the phone in his hand.

"It's an emergency," Kai explains, striding over to the desk.

'In a minute,' Kris mouths at him, scowling before angling the chair away and returning to his call. “Yeah, the navigator just got to my office. How quickly can we get the President on the-- what the ?!"

There’s no way in hell Kai is going to let professional niceties get in his way right now: Understanding Kris' intention to keep ignoring him until the phone call ends, he yanks the cord from the device to solve that issue and launches straight to the point. “Sir, the mission assigned to me and Dyo today – something went wrong. There was gunfire, and then Dyo was yelling some code, a 1288? Which prompted an unknown system voice to enter our secure line. There was a scuffle that sounded like hand-to-hand combat before the transmission was cut off. I think he’s been captured. We have to do something, immediately. Here’s the case file.” Kai s the envelope at his boss after his rapid fire debrief. Kris will know what to do. He’s got to know what to do.

Kris tilts his head to the side, popping his neck but keeping his permanently impassive face in place. He takes the envelope and slides the case file out just enough to scan the mission objectives at the top. “Did you navigate Dyo all the way through the specified location?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Was his router pinging back the remaining areas of the building that we were missing on the floorplans, without any issues?”

“Yes sir, I believe we have a complete map of the area now.” Hope surges within him, recognizing this advantage. “It should make retrieving Dyo a lot easier, thankfully.”

Kris' eyes flit back and forth over the page, but it doesn't seem like he's reading it. More like he's deliberating. He purses his lips and slips the paper back inside the envelope, returning it to Kai. “Then mission accomplished. Burn it.”

“Sir?” He must have heard wrong.

Kris frowns, turning to his cell phone that buzzes with new texts coming in. “You guys did what you were charged to do," he says dismissively while distracted with texting back. "The mission was successful. Follow protocol and send everything to the incinerator.”

Kai gapes in disbelief. “You can’t be serious.”

The boss levels an intimidating glare at him. “You know I am.”

“What about Dyo??”

“Under different circumstances, I’d have different orders, but this is bigger than him. And he